The ‘Strange’ Rebirth of Maxine Waters

Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng take note in the Daily Beast of the current star status of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) in certain circles despite her history as one of the most corrupt members of Congress:

Rep. Maxine Waters has been reborn at the age of 78, emerging as a folk hero to the anti-Trump resistance for her repeated torching of the president.

From the glowing coverage and partisan praise, you’d barely detect that just a few years ago the veteran California congresswoman was dubbed one of the nation’s “most corrupt” elected officials by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington for her role in pushing a bailout for a bank tied to her family.

“When ethics groups of all political leanings agree that a particular member of Congress does not have the minimal ethics needed for the position, it is strange that that member parades as an advocate of ethics,” mused Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group. “That describes the current odd posturing of Maxine Waters.”

Of course, Waters is not doing anything different from what she has done in Congress since 1993. She has only friends and enemies. And of course, the enemies are all racists. There has always been an element of the crackpot in her ravings.

What has changed is the election of Donald Trump. He brings out the worst in his critics, most certainly limiting their long-term effectiveness. The anti-Trump hysteria knew no limits perhaps until Kathy Griffin came along.

Waters hasn’t dangled any heads lately, but her statements and Tweets are pretty extreme, just as they have always been. Her popularity among anti-Trumpsters says more about them than it does about Waters.